31 Days to Better Health - Day 7

Don’t you just love weekends? Wouldn’t life be more wonderful if all weekends had three days or more? I suppose even if they were three days we would still want them to be longer though as it is human nature to want what you don’t have. While this weekend is only two days I am still happy that it arrived. The weather has been gorgeous all day and that meant that we were out of the house most of the day. *happy dance*

I have been enjoying writing the recap of what we have accomplished so far because I find it very encouraging and I hope you do as well. Here are the tasks we tackled during the first 6 days of January:

Day 1 – Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back

Day 2 – Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion

Day 3 – Listed Our Goals for January

Day 4 – Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While

Day 5 – Looked at Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition

Day 6 – Practiced Conscious Eating

How are you feeling about the posts so far? Are you looking at your actions and attitudes any differently? What have you found the most useful? Personally the first day was the most profound for me. However it was also useful for me to list the things that I know I have been avoiding. I hope you are getting as much out of these posts as I am.

Hara Hachi Bu:

Today’s concept is related to conscious eating but is a different angle. Hara hachi bu is the Japanese principle of eating until you are satisfied, but not stuffed. You will see it translated as eating until you are 80% full. Since many American’s eat too fast, and consequently too much I thought this would be a good thing for us to discuss. If it is correct, as I have read many times, that once the stomach is full it takes 20 minutes for the signal to reach the brain then this concept makes sense for all of us to try. The reason that I decided to write about this separately was something that I noticed not long ago when we were out for dinner which I want to share with you.

As you probably have realized by now I am a people watcher. I tend to look around to see what is happening around me. I think that there is so much we can learn about ourselves from observing others so I take every chance to learn that I can. I find that the things which I focus on in others are always things that I need to think about for myself. Basically like the pot calling the kettle black if you are familiar with that old cliché.

Let me get to the story so this makes sense for you. About 15 feet away from us at the restaurant was another couple out for dinner on Christmas Eve. They were about my age, late 40s or early 50s. I noticed that they seemed happy and were chatting a lot when they first sat down and it made me smile to see another happy couple. :-) So often I notice people bickering but this couple was definitely enjoying each other and I love to see that. However once the food arrived their behavior quickly changed dramatically. The husband was eating as though he had not eaten in a week. As soon as he had a bite of food in his mouth he was loading up his fork for his next bite. I was not sure that he even swallowed one bite before he had put the next one in his mouth. I know I should not have been watching but I couldn’t look away. All I could think of was that he couldn’t possibly taste his food, enjoying it or noticing much of anything about his meal. It was so sad for me to watch this because I find eating can be a joy. However when I reflected on what I had seen I realized that there has been many times in my life where I have done the exact same thing. I was trying to eat in between appointments, while driving (which I don’t do now), or while watching a DVD. I realized that I needed to write something about unconscious eating and listening to your body.

Yesterday we covered eating consciously and with intention. The goal was to pay attention to what we were consuming. Today the idea is to pay close attention to our body as we eat. The distinction is slight but I hope you see the difference.

There are few ways you can go about practicing hara hachi bu. The easiest way, but by no means traditional, is to start reducing your portion sizes intentionally. I did this and found that I was satisfied with a much smaller quantity of food than I had been eating. You can reduce your portions a little or a lot to see what works for you. In addition to feeling satisfied with less your stomach shrinks because you are not constantly stretching it out with big meals. If you can eat less and this shrinks your stomach in the process imagine what this will do for your health.

The other approach, which many Americans will find much more difficult, is to get in touch with how your body feels while you are eating. As much as I love this stuff this one took me a while to master. I had been so programmed to eat what was on my plate that the idea of stopping before the plate was empty was tough for me. That is why I decided to simply serve myself less at first. The smaller portions taught me that I was satisfied with less food. As I also consciously worked to put my fork down between bites, chew my food extremely thoroughly and starting listening to my body I began to understand the concept of hara hachi bu more completely. If you can start this exercise by listening to your body that is wonderful. You are better than I am. ;-) But if like me that doesn’t work right away, simply feed yourself less and try to slow down eating. You will get to the same result in the end.

Your exercise for today is to either:

1) Intentionally serve yourself less food to determine if you are satisfied with less.

2) Eat slowly and consciously while listening to your body and stop when you are satisfied but not full.

Tips to make this exercise more successful:

1) Eat without distraction.

2) Intentionally engage all your senses in the experience (hearing, sight, smell, touch as well as taste)

3) Put your utensils down between bites.

4) Thoroughly chew each mouthful of food.

5) Don’t put another mouthful of food into your mouth (or even onto you fork) until you have swallowed the one that was in your mouth.

Once you have finished this exercise write down what it taught you about yourself. I discovered the following:

1) By taking my time the overall experience of eating was richer and that included the taste of the food.

2) Smelling the food before putting it into my mouth also enhanced the experience. Apparently “they” are right that a lot of our taste is in our olfactory senses.

3) I was satisfied with much less food when eating like this, it felt like taking my time caused me to more thoroughly process the experience of eating.

4) As much as I enjoyed eating like this while alone it won’t be something that I do this same way when I am out. I am not one who likes to be a spectacle in public and I think this would be an attention getter in a bad way.

One of the things that I discovered when I starting doing this was that I was an unconscious eater. I found out that I was more likely to eat what was on my plate rather than to listen to my body. In fact I didn’t really seem to listen to my body until I was uncomfortable. I hope you find this exercise to be as valuable as I did.


If you want to share what this is experience is like for you I would love to hear it. I was surprised by how much I learned when I did this. :-)

Progress on my goals:

1. Newsletters – No progress on this goal on Friday. Instead I spent time enjoying my mindfulness meditation course which I now seem to be thoroughly addicted to. It is nice to be addicted to a healthy thing which isn't always the case for me.

2. Body Bugg – five days in a row wearing my bugg and going strong.

3. Date with Dan – Dan came home early on Friday which was very nice. There is nothing like spending more time with my hubby

4. Measuring calorie dense food – I am still doing this, and it continues to annoy me less each day. Not sure how long I will do this, but for now it is reminding me to add more seeds and nuts.

5. Working on my business – No progress on this goal on Friday. Instead I spent time enjoying my mindfulness meditation course.

Are you making progress on your goals? I continue to review mine each morning after I finish my reading and meditation and it seems to help me move through my day with intention. Now when I don’t work on one or two of my goals it is a conscious choice. Friday it was more important to me to spend time with the mindful meditation course. It was good for me to be able to make a choice that was counter to my to-do list since I am such a perfectionist. If you are also a recovering a perfectionist I am sure you get this, but the rest of you are probably completely confused. Sorry about that. ;-)

Random Observations:

I mention often that Dan and I talk a lot and when I say a lot I actually mean for hours at a time. We try to talk about big picture things though sometimes it is more nonsense. Saturday morning we watched the first lesson in the mindfulness meditation course on DVD because I wanted Dan to share this with me. After the lecture we talked about what we both got out of it. This led to a conversation about things that I like and don’t like about myself. Since I don’t want any of you to think that I am perfect, because I am far from perfect, I want to share some of the things that I don’t like about me. I am hoping that by reading this you will realize that we all have stuff that we don’t like about ourselves and that may never change. What is important is what we do with this information. Hopefully this will make more sense after you read my “complaints”.

The things that I don’t like about myself include:

1) I am not happy with my body. I want to lose more weight and to be much more fit.

2) I don’t like looking in the mirror and seeing grey hair and sagging skin.  Isn't aging grand?  NOT

3) I want to be able to learn to accept and be happy with myself exactly as I am now.

4) Someday I want to learn to forgive people who have treated me badly. This is a biggie for me since I have a very long memory.

5) While being a perfectionist has its positives I want to learn to let that go and be content with what I have achieved so far.

6) I want to live in the now and to spend less time thinking about the past and the future.

7) Even though I say that I want to be healthy there are things that I know that I should be doing which don’t make it to the top of my priority list. This one really bugs me!

Are you starting to get the idea? I could literally go on for hours listing the things that I don’t like about myself. However listing them doesn’t exactly do anything to make me feel better about myself now does it? I have decided to keep a running list of the things that I want to work on in my binder. I will work on one of them at a time until I feel like I have made some/enough progress. Then I will move on to another and hopefully this way I won’t become overwhelmed.

Now it is your turn to think about what you don’t like about yourself. Sorry! Since none of us are happy with everything about ourselves I am sure that you also have things on your "I don’t like this about myself" list. Try to simply write these items down without emotion. We shouldn’t be judging ourselves or getting down because we don’t measure up to our own expectations. All we are trying to do is to get these things on paper so that we have a starting point, a list to work from.

Additionally don’t try to tackle more than one of these items at a time. If you are like me I imagine these “issues” have been with you a long time. The goals are to accept who you are, flaws and all, and learn to love yourself. Try to remember that you judge yourself far more harshly than other judge you at least that is true for me. I also find it useful to remind myself that while I have things about me that I want to work on knowing what they are is most of the battle. Many people go through life without introspection. This still boggles my mind I might add. If you have things about you that you want to fix congratulations. You are more enlightened that many people in the world. Go you! *huge smile*

Friday:

Dan was very happy to have a green smoothie for breakfast today. Who is this man? In all seriousness, I am so happy that he has embraced healthy food. :-)

I decided to also make myself a green smoothie for breakfast. After all the Vitamix was already dirty so why not right? There is nothing like a little raw kale in the morning.  This is old photo I took of a green smoothie on the boat.  Soon we will be enjoying those here again.  :-)

For lunch on Friday I was back to the same Ezekiel wrap I had yesterday but this one I ate more like a pizza and I added cucumber slices to it  Sorry for the lack of focus on this.  Apparently I should have used a tripod.  Anything with hummus and raw veggies is bound to be one of my favorites.

I also had a small bowl of the mushroom risotto from yesterday.  I love those little beaded spoons in case you hadn't noticed.  It is probably in my head but I think food tastes better from a nice plate or bowl and with a pretty utensil.  ;-)

Since I didn’t have dinner last night (I was full from lunch) I asked Dan what he wanted me to make him and he actually said a chocolate green smoothie. Really! I am not exaggerating when I said that he loves them. Go Dan! You are my hero. ;-)

Happy thoughts:

• It was great to get this post started Friday evening. That might not sound like a big deal to you but I spend quite a bit of time writing these so any time I can get a head start that takes the pressure off me a little. Knowing that we were going to spend time at the boat on Saturday I knew anything I could do Friday would help. While Dan had his smoothie I got a head start on the blog.

• What a gorgeous day we had on Saturday. At 3pm it was 66 degrees in January. What the heck? If I didn’t know better I would think we moved. It was absolutely amazing to enjoy the boat without a coat in January. What a treat.

• Dan bought me a new laptop today. I needed it since Dragon was causing my old laptop to lock up. I am so lucky to have a husband that is good with technology. While it may appear that I am also good with technology that is a bunch of smoke and mirrors. If it weren’t for my wonderful hubby I would be completely lost.

• Lunch today was Vietnamese food (from Me Kong Delta Cafe) which was delicious like always. Dan and I both thought we better get it now before Luan and his family close for a month to celebrate the lunar New Year. Today is the last day they are open and then they reopen on February 21st. Poor Dan he is already in a mourning period over no Vietnamese for more than a month. I guess I need to start making him some spring rolls to take to work for lunch. Our tofu spring rolls were delicious, BTW. ;-)

• The sunset tonight from the boat was nice.  The  two pictures above, and the one at the top of the post, were taken this evening from our boat. We both enjoy sitting in the cockpit and watching the sky change colors. There is no better way to spend the evening than watching Mother Nature put on her evening light show. The water fowl were kind enough to sing us a song as the sun went down. :-)

Signing Out:

Sorry this post is a little later than normal. We were spending time enjoying the beautiful weather at the boat which meant that I wasn’t in the cabin and logged in. I think it is important to do things everyday which feed your soul. That activity for me today was enjoying the boat.

For those of you who want to know what is coming up for tomorrow that post will be about taking the stress out of mealtime. I will be sharing the tips and tricks that I use at mealtime which make my life easier.

I hope you are having a great Saturday and that you have some fun or relaxation planned for Sunday. Talk with you again tomorrow.

31 Days to Better Health - Day 6

*Woo Hoo* Today is my favorite day or the week. Hello Friday, I have missed you. Not only is it Friday but we are expecting temperatures in the upper 50’s today. Wow, what a treat for January! I woke up today with a big smile on my face anticipating a wonderful weather day and a gorgeous start to the weekend. I hope your Friday started off this well. :-)

I have been enjoying the recap of what we have done so far because I find it encouraging. Here are the tasks we tackled during the first 5 days:

Day 1 – Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back

Day 2 – Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion

Day 3 – Listed Our Goals for January

Day 4 – Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While

Day 5 – Looked at Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition

How are you feeling about the posts so far? Have my words caused you to look at your life and your reactions to events in different ways? I hope so, I want as many people to learn from my life, and my mistakes as possible. The one benefit of be the ripe old age of 49 is that I have had plenty of time to make mistakes. Additionally you can view those mistakes as things from which you learn and grow or as just mistakes. Doesn’t it make much more sense to see your mistakes as learning opportunities?

Conscious Eating:

Today I want to talk with you about conscious eating. I am going to look at this from a number of different angles. The classic approach is to be aware of what you are eating so that you don’t eat mindlessly and I will discuss that. But first I want us all to look at what we are eating. Remember it is not a cliché that we are what we eat so the composition of our food intake is important.

First let’s look at what we eat. Please take out your notebook and jot down what you had for breakfast, lunch and dinner yesterday. List as many ingredients in your meals as you can. For example if you had a sandwich for lunch list what type and brand of bread, all the fillings, basically as many details as you can. Do this for all your meals for the day.

Second, next to each item on the list I want you to write, animal, produce/natural, or processed. Animal would be meat, fish, poultry, dairy, butter, and honey. Processed would be anything that came from a factory and has more than one item in its ingredient list, this would apply to bread, condiments, lunch meat, frozen meals (yes even Amy’s brand), protein powder, etc. Any item that didn’t fit in one of those categories would most likely be produce. If you think a category that I missed please let me know.

Third, now mark if these items were organic or not. If you don’t know because you ate out assume it wasn’t organic unless is specifically indicated that is was.

Finally, what was the country of origin of the food? Most of us aren’t used to looking for this information so you might not know. But this is important and as you become more interested in nutrition you will find yourself buying food closer and closer to your geographic location for a number of reasons.

Here is my list from Thursday:

breakfast: savory oatmeal
oats – produce – conventional - Ireland
nutritional yeast – produce/processed – ? Bob’s Red Mill - ?
oregano – produce – organic - US
paprika – produce – organic - US
spinach – produce – organic - US
mushrooms – produce – organic - US
raw pumpkin seeds – produce – organic - US

lunch: Ezekiel wrap with veggies and hummus
Ezekiel wrap – processed – organic - US
hummus – organic - ?
spinach – organic - US
broccoli – organic - US
pine nuts - ? - Turkey

dinner: brown rice risotto and salad
short grain brown rice – organic - US
nutritional yeast – produce/processed – ? Bob’s Red Mill - ?
truffles – produce – organic - Italy
shitakes – produce – organic - US
onions – produce – conventional - ?
garlic – produce – organic - US
spinach – produce – organic - US
salsa – produce – organic - US
cucumber – produce – conventional - US
avocado – produce – conventional - US

beverages: tea with citrus and cinnamon
green and white tea – produce – organic - Japan
fresh squeezed grapefruit juice – produce – conventional - US
cinnamon – produce – organic - US

Other than the Ezekiel wrap I did pretty well today. Admittedly I don’t usually eat Ezekiel wraps but I really wanted a sandwich-type thing and I had them in the freezer so I had one and I really enjoyed it I might add. I debated about whether to list nutritional yeast as processed or not, I think that one could go either way which is why I listed it in both categories. But overall I thought my list was clean and I felt as though I made good choices on Thursday.

You may notice that some of the items have a ? listed as my response. I tend to throw out containers that the items come in when purchased which means that I wasn’t certain of the country of origin and therefore left it blank.

I hope you also noticed that many of the items on my list are conventional. While I try to buy organic I will also buy conventional produce. However if I purchased meat or dairy (which I don’t) those I would only buy organic. The reason for this is that animal products contain much higher levels of pesticides and chemicals than produce ever contains. Remember that the toxins that the animal consumes are stored in its fat. Given how much food the animals eat in order to grow one can only imagine the levels of toxins that are stored in the animals. No you can’t trim the fat or skin and remove the toxins. All animals have subcutaneous and intramuscular fat. You can’t trim away the intramuscular fat. I wanted to point that since this was a topic of conversation with a friend of mine recently.

Now review the list you created of the items you ate. What do you notice? Did you know where your food came from, where it was grown, what was in it, and whether it was organic or not? Are you happy with your choices or do you think that you might want to make some changes now that you have looked at your list?

The next part of the assignment is to contemplate how our food came to us. Do you know the farmer or did your food come from a grocery store? Do you have any idea how the workers on the farm are treated? That is one of the benefits of buying locally and/or belonging to a CSA. If you eat meat and animal products do you know how those animals were treated and raised? This is probably something that you don’t want to think about but that is precisely the reason that you should be thinking about it. Many of us avoid thinking about things that are unpleasant because that way we can also avoid taking action.

Now let’s think about the reasons behind why we ate. Was it simply time to eat, like lunchtime? Were you physically hungry each time you ate a meal or was there some emotion driving you to eat? Many people eat to avoid feeling something that is unpleasant. Those feelings could be: anger, loneliness, boredom or sadness as well as many other emotions. If you aren’t sure if you were eating out of hunger or emotion ask yourself if your hunger came on slowly and built over time or it came on quickly. True hunger builds slowly but emotional causes of hunger happen fast. If you are eating due to emotions don’t judge yourself but be aware of it so that you can spot it the next time it happens. It is good to keep in mind that none of us can change what we aren’t aware of. Awareness is the first step to making any change.

Did you stop eating once your hunger was satisfied or did you keep eating until your plate was empty? If you aren’t sure think back to if you left anything behind on your plate. Lots of us grew up being told to clean our plates and we eat everything without ever thinking of leaving anything behind. I will talk about this later in the month and give you some ideas for how to cope with this if it is a problem you struggle with.

The final part of this exercise is to determine if you truly enjoyed your food. Most people in our culture eat too fast. They try to slip in meal time between meetings, errands, taking care of the kids or some other activity. However this means that they aren’t fully present to what they are doing which in this case if fueling their bodies. Have you ever eaten a meal and then not really remembered doing so? If you find yourself eating too fast that is also a sign of mindless eating. To remind ourselves to eat with awareness I have an exercise for you when you eat your next meal. I thought it was over the top before I tried it but once I was finished I had to admit that it was a very pleasant way to eat, though I will admit that I am not sure that I would do it with anyone other than my husband. Here is what you do:

1. Set the table with your favorite dishes and glasses. You might want to add some fresh flowers and a special cloth napkin. I played some very quiet instrumental background music too. If you normally watch TV or read the paper when you eat, don’t. Instead of being distracted concentrate all your attention on the food.

2. Plate your meal as nicely as you can and sit down to dinner.

3. Pay special attention to the food. Observe the following:
a. What does it look like?
b. How does it smell?
c. Is it hot or cold?
d. What is the texture?
e. Does it remind you of any food memories, like something you mother used to prepare for you?

4. Place a bit of food on your fork and bring it to your nose and smell it before you put it into your mouth.

5. Once the food is in your mouth put your utensil down. Notice the following:
a. How does the food feel on your tongue? Roll it around a little before you start to chew.
b. What is the texture of the food between your teeth?
c. Is the food hot, warm or cold?
d. Does it taste like you expected it to based on the smell?
e. Make certain to chew the food well, until it has no substance left before you swallow.
f. How does the food feel as it travels down your throat?

6. Place another bite of food on your utensil and repeat the process.

7. Pay attention while you are eating to whether your hunger has been satisfied or if you are still hungry. Stop when you are satisfied and but the leftovers away.

8. Now reflect on what this experience was like for you. Answer the following questions in your notebook:
a. How did this experience differ from your usual meal time?
b. Was the food more satisfying eating this way or was it frustrating for you?
c. Were you satisfied with less food than usual?
d. Did eating this way cause you to slow down?

I found that his practice made me much more aware of what I was eating. The flavors of the food were much more intense than usual. I also realized that when I ate this way I tended to close my eyes and concentrate on the experience. If you haven’t tried this exercise at least one please do. You may be surprised by the things that you notice. You can do this with an entire meal or just a piece a fruit. It doesn’t matter what you use just take your time and notice everything about the food and your experience with it.

If you want to share what this is experience is like for you I would love to hear it. I was surprised by how much I learned when I did this.

Progress on my goals:

1. Newsletters – spent 60 minutes on this Thursday and the first month is looking good. Soon I will be working on the second newsletter. *woo hoo*

2. Body Bugg – four days in a row wearing my bugg and going strong.

3. Date with Dan – Dan came home early on Thursday and we watched a meditation lesson before my webinar. Not a date in the classic sense of the word but it works for us.

4. Measuring calorie dense food – I am still doing this, and it is annoying me a little less. As a result I am adding more seeds and nuts to my food.

5. Working on my business – I spent 60 minutes focused on my new business which was very productive and made me happy.

Are you making progress on your goals? I continue to review mine each morning after I finish my reading and meditation and it seems to help me to stay focused. If you are having difficulty making progress on your goals try my technique of reviewing yours each morning. Alternately you could write your goals down and post them in prominent places around your house, in your car, on your desk, etc. Maybe you could make your goals your screen saver at work. Another idea would be to set an alarm in your phone to remind you to work on a task at a particular time. Keep trying different ideas until something works for you. If you find something that works for you please share the technique with others to help them be successful too.

Thursday:

Dan had fruity oatmeal with nuts and seeds again because we were out of kale. But since I made my way to the store for kale later in the day I don’t have to tell you what he is having on Friday do I? I love it that my husband enjoys healthy food enough that he requests it. You have no idea how far we have come. Trust me when I say that if we can eat a healthful diet anyone can do it. Less than 10 years ago I would have told you that we weren’t capable of being this healthy. It is so good to have exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds.

My breakfast was a bowl of savory oatmeal once Dan was out the door to work. Unlike my husband I feel no particular need to have something sweet in the morning, or really any time of the day. I was never the type of person who craved sweets. However Dan was a huge sweets person and he says that after a couple of months of not eating them his cravings literally disappeared. I ask him about this all the time because I am looking for insight to share with those of you who are battling the dessert demons. According to Dan understanding the impact of eating the sweets made it much easier for him to avoid them initially. He went on to say that after a while the cravings disappeared and then he was fine. He thinks that smoothies, fruity oatmeal and strawberry and banana soft serve also helped him to get over his desire for sweets. I hope those tips help you.

Back to the food, my savory oatmeal yesterday had nutritional yeast, cumin, paprika, no-salt seasoning, garlic, fresh spinach, mushrooms and a little salsa. I finished it with a teaspoon of raw pumpkin seeds. It was delicious, if I do say so myself. ;-)

Lunch was one of my favorite comfort foods. I heated an Ezekiel wrap over the grate of my stove until it was hot and a little crispy. Then I smeared it with hummus, and topped it with spinach, broccoli and pine nuts. *yum*

Dinner was a truffled short grain brown rice risotto with shitakes. I added a little nutritional yeast for umami and topped the risotto with fresh parsley and walnuts.

To accompany the risotto we had a simple salad of shredded romaine, cucumber, avocado, salsa and no-salt seasoning.

After dinner I had a webinar while Dan relaxed with his little fur child. They were curled up in their favorite chair doing Sudoku. BTW I picked up a few tid-bits during this webinar that I am going to research and experiment with on my own. If they work for me I will share them with you soon.

Happy thoughts:

• It was wonderful to have the weather warm up so much today. It was in the upper 50s here so it was completely comfortable outside in a T-shirt when I walked to the store. This is a wonderful treat for us in January. Tomorrow we may reach 60 which I think will mean and boat relaxing time. *woo hoo*

• I got carried away again with the mindful meditation DVDs from The Great Courses. I am have finished watching 9 of the 12 hours in a just a few days. When I ordered this I knew I would enjoy the subject matter but had no idea how much. I can already tell you that I will be watching this over and over. The level of detail that the professor covers is fabulous. I have gained a lot of insight about myself and expect this to continue with multiple viewings at least for a while. I will review this properly once we are in February and I have more time. Additionally I now feel like I need to learn more about Buddhism which is a big step for a girl who went to a Jesuit college (Loyola).

• I am happy that I am learning to accept my perfectionism and disregard it. Earlier today I felt like I should turn off the mindfulness meditation DVDs and attend to my to-do list. However I recognized this as my drive to be perfect and consciously disregarded getting to my to-do list. This is a huge step for me and I was proud of myself for making the decision to disregard what I “knew I should be doing”.

• Dan called to tell me that carpenter repaired the teak door to the V-berth and delivered it to his office today. *nice* I can’t wait to get that reinstalled on the boat. Now we need to schedule a time to meet the carpenter at the boat so he can look at the woodwork and give us a bid on replacing some of the teak that is weather damaged in the galley.

• I am really looking forward to a little boat time tomorrow. With weather in the 60s it should be a wonderful day to sit in the cockpit, drink tea, talk to the neighbors and just kick back with our feet up. There really is nothing like relaxing on the boat.

• I love Fridays as you know by now. Needless to say I am very happy that today is Friday and that means extra time with my hubby. *woo hoo*

Signing Out:

Dan is on his way home from work so that is my cue to finish up this post. I was so involved in my mindfulness meditation DVDs that I haven’t even started to think about dinner. Nothing like planning on my part huh? ;-)

For those of you who want to know what is coming up for tomorrow that post will be an extension of conscious eating. Specifically the post will be about the Japanese concept of hara hachi bu.

I hope you had a wonderful week and have some fun planned for your weekend. Talk with you again tomorrow.

Barley in the Risotto Style with Butternut Squash, Shitakes, Leeks and Sage

Don’t you love weekend mornings when you can sleep in until your body naturally wakes up? I think those are the best! Yes, we slept until we woke up and I thoroughly enjoyed that.

Breakfast:

Once we actually got up and started moving we had our usual green smoothies for breakfast which consisted of: kale, frozen bananas, walnuts, ground flaxseeds, cinnamon, powdered ginger, a little stevia and water to process.

Food Philosophy:

I have gotten a few questions about why green smoothies and why kale for breakfast. The answer is probably more simple that you realize. My general approach to food is to feed us things that will nourish us and provide the building blocks our bodies need to operate most efficiently. Food is something we need to consume to sustain life but most of the time we don’t think about it any further than I am hungry, I need to eat.

If you eat something like a commercially prepared processed meat analog you dip in a sweet sauce like ketchup or barbecue, a baked potato topped with commercially prepared vegan sour crème and wash it down with wine what is the impact on your health? You have consumed macronutrients in the form of protein, fat, carbohydrates and alcohol but what else have you ingested? You have eaten soy protein isolates to elevate your IGF-1, more omega 6 than omega 3 causing inflammation, too much fat in general which will clog your arteries, alcohol which is a toxin that your body needs to eliminate and high fructose corn syrup in the sauce. Let’s not forget about the fact that the soy was probably conventional which means it was roundup ready technology, and there were dyes, preservatives and other chemicals in there that your body also sees as toxins.

When you think about the impact of that meal does it sound like a good idea for your health? Was this fictitious meal I mentioned vegan? Most likely this meal was vegan depending on the specific brands consumed. But was this meal life affirming and healthy? In my opinion this meal was as unhealthy as the standard American diet. Why am I mentioning this? I want to make it very obvious that a vegan diet can be healthy or it can be unhealthy. However you can eat a good tasting healthy vegan diet that isn’t that much work but it will require a little preparation and cooking.

When I make our food I go in the opposite direction. I select items for our meals that are healthy. The green smoothie is a perfect example. I use the frozen banana to make the raw kale more palatable and reduce the need for added sweetener. The kale is kept raw because it is more nutritious when it is raw or lightly cooked. I use kale instead of spinach because it is more nutritious. Cinnamon and ginger are added for flavor but also for their antioxidants. Walnuts are used for fat and creamy texture because they have the best omega 3 to omega 6 ratio of all nuts. I can feel good knowing this smoothie provides a balance of macronutrients (protein, fat and carbs) but also micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). I strongly believe that food should give your body what it needs to be healthy rather than providing toxins your body needs to remove to prevent damage/disease as well as repair the general damage that is done everyday as a function of life.

As you can see I have definite opinions about what we will or will not eat. I think every meal provides you with an opportunity to nourish or poison your body. Since food is something that you ingest 3 or more times a day don’t you want to make the most healthful choice possible? Sometimes when you are out at a restaurant your options are not all that healthy. When I am in that situation I make the best choice possible in that moment. I suppose this is because I have learned to think of food as life and health giving not just as something to make my hunger go away. I hope that makes some sense since it is the basis of how and why I cook what I do.

Lunch:

On the weekends Dan and I typically discuss what I am going to make for our late lunch with my parents. As usual this is always harder that you would it think it should be. Trying to cook healthy vegan food that two unhealthy omnivores will enjoy that is also healthy enough for us is not the easiest task. Saturday we settled on risotto which I made with barley since that is healthier than using risotto rice. I decided to mimic the flavors from the dish I had on New Year’s Eve at Great Sage. Here is what I did:

Barley in the Risotto Style with Butternut Squash, Shitakes, Leeks and Sage
Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into ½ inch cubes
1 leek
5 cloves garlic
2 cups barley
boiling water necessary to create a creamy texture (about 10 cups)
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast, or to taste (I added it one tablespoon at a time and re-tasted the dish I was going to a buttery background not a cheesy one)
¼ pound fresh mushrooms (I used shitake caps but you could also substitute 1 ounce of dried rehydrated mushrooms)
10 – 12 fresh sage leaves, thinly sliced
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
¼ cup walnuts, finely chopped – for garnish

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with a silpat, parchment paper or easy release aluminum foil. Bake the squash until it is tender. With my oven temperature acting up I don’t want to give you a time on this but it should be done in about 20 minutes.

While the squash is roasting you can cut the leeks and garlic and allow them to stand for 10 minutes and get the water boiling to add to the barley. Once the 10 minutes has elapsed combine the leeks, garlic, barley and two cups of water to a low shallow pan. Allow the barley to cook until most of the water has been absorbed then add another cup of water. I have an 8 ounce ladle which is why I know how much liquid I am adding but you can always just estimate. Continue to add water and stir until the barley is starting to soften. Then add the nutritional yeast, mushrooms, butternut squash and sage and continue to add water, stir and cook until you like the texture. Once you like the texture add freshly ground black pepper to taste.

To serve the risotto top with walnuts and a sprig of small sage leaves for garnish. The sage is optional but it is pretty. For my parents I added a drizzle of unfiltered extra virgin olive oil (maybe a teaspoon) so they wouldn’t think the dish was too clean. Dan and I had ours without oil and loved it.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 249.64
Calories From Fat (11%) - 27.5

Total Fat - 3.11g
Saturated Fat - 0.37g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 18.85mg
Potassium - 417.72mg
Total Carbohydrates - 48.22g
Fiber - 9.49g
Sugar - 2.34g
Protein - 6.77g

Comments:

This must have been good because my parents cleared their plates without complaint which is most unusual from my mother. ;-) Not a single comment about this needing cheese. Will miracles never cease? LOL

We thought this had good flavor though not assertive. The pops of sage were nice. We also liked the crunch of the chopped walnuts on top. Overall this was a good dish very warming and comforting. This is definitely a nice cold weather dish.

I served this with a small side salad of mixed baby greens, mango, orange, and grapes that I dressed with barley miso and apple cider. I topped the salad with a few sliced almonds for crunch.

Movie Night:

After lunch we watched the movie “Radio”. Talk about a tear jerker. If you aren’t in the mood to cry I don’t suggest this one. The movie was well made; Cuba Gooding Jr. did a superb job playing Radio. The end of the movie is uplifting but getting there was tough. I think what made it worse for me was that it was true story. Also I wasn’t exactly in the mood for a downer given everything else going on. However I would say this movie was a 4 or 5 on a 5 scale. The actors were great and the story well told.

We choose a comedy for our next movie. This time we watched “The Ugly Truth”. It was very much in the style of Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in my opinion. I am not going to say it was deep, but it was cute. It was exactly what I needed after crying through “Radio”. If you need a chuckle this was worth watching. I am not sure how I managed before we had Netflix. It really is wonderful to be able to watch whatever you want anytime.

Dinner:

For dinner we had a quick bowl of leftovers from the refrigerator which consisted of quinoa, black beans, Indian tomato sauce, parsley and chopped cashews. This is exactly why I like to make my intentional leftovers. Sometimes we are hungry and I don’t exactly feel like cooking. On those occasions I reach for the intentional leftovers. It is nice to know that I can pull together something that is nutritious in less time that ordering Chinese delivery.

Dessert:

Needless to say Dan needed dessert after the movie. By now I know all of you know what he had, strawberry banana soft serve. Can you tell how much he likes it? LOL

Dietary Guidelines We Follow (part 3):

The more I write about things I keep in mind when we eat the more I realize there is to say. When I started this section I thought I could cover it one post. Clearly I was wrong. Other things I keep in mind when preparing our food is as follows:

• No added salt unless I am making Chinese food or need a little miso. While I know salt is bad and even the IOM has reduced the salt recommendation for everyone to 1,500mg per day when I am making Chinese I need a little soy sauce. Reducing our sodium intake was harder than giving up oil for me. ;-) However I am happy to say we are well below 1,500mg if sodium per average now. Also we have both found that the longer we are off added sodium the more our taste buds have adapted to the flavor or food without salt which means we need less soy sauce or miso now than we did in the past.

• We stopped drinking alcohol except special occasions. Anyone that knows us realizes how hard this was. Both Dan and I loved good Italian red wine with Brunello being our favorite. We have a wine a cellar and it was always stocked with the a few case of overflow wine in the basement. Giving up wine was very difficult but once I realized that alcohol is a toxin that you body needs to process and remove it is hard to drink it no matter how much you love the taste. I still cook with wine every now and then but try to use it at the beginning of cooking in a mostly dry pan so that the liquid evaporates and all I am left with in the flavor. Honestly I still miss my Brunello which is why we said yes on Christmas Eve when Allan suggested we have some while we waited for our table.

• When I am added red bell peppers to dishes I try to add them at the end to preserve the vitamin C since that is heat sensitive.

• During the year when the farmers’ market is open we always go and belong to a local organic CSA. I believe that local food is more nutritious because it was more recently harvested. Since fresh produce loses nutrition as a function of time the most recently picked the food the better it has to be in terms of vitamins and minerals. This is the same reason I try to eat seasonally.

• I buy organic produce whenever I can for a number of reasons. One of the important ones is that when possible we eat food skin and all. For many foods the skin and the flesh just below the skin is the most nutritious. When food is organic I feel comfortable eating the skin but with conventional produce I am worried about the pesticide residue that won’t wash off.

I am going to continue this section until I run out of things to write. I have no idea how long that will be but expect at least one more post on this and probably more.

A Little Bit More About Me:

Since I don’t want you to think that I am saint, because I am not, in this post I wanted to share some of the less flattering truths about myself. I am fiercely loyal and when someone is important to me I will fight for them no matter what. What this means is that when anyone treats someone I love poorly I don’t forget it. I have a very long memory and I am not particularly forgiving. This is something that I should work on moderating but I have been this way a long time. I suspect changing this aspect of me will take a lot of hard work.

I also dislike bullies and people in authority who throw their weight around. In my day I have had some seriously awful bosses, some worse than others. Needless to say given my personality I have a tendency to say what I think when these people have behaved poorly and have gotten myself into trouble. I realized long ago that I would never be the CFO of a major corporation because I wasn’t willing to lie, cheat and/or steal to get there.

I also have a problem with people that lie. When people lie I don’t forget it. Are you seeing the pattern? I am a very loving and giving person but if I find out you aren’t a nice person I don’t need to hear anything else. I will be polite if I see you but I won’t be nice. I refuse to be fake or phony. I know lots of people will say something nice because they think they should even if it is disingenuous but I won’t do that. I am that person you never want to ask “does this make my butt look big” unless you want the truth.

I think it is important to know who you are and your pluses and minuses. If you don’t know what your negatives are how are you ever going to change them. Awareness is the first step in the process of change.

I wanted to add something unflattering about myself because I didn’t want anyone to be under the impression that I am perfect since that is very far from the truth. I am human like everyone else and I make mistakes, more than I care to admit actually. Hopefully now I make fewer mistakes than I did in the past. It would be nice to be growing better as I also grow older. ;-)

Dan is wondering why I have decided to add a “character development” section to the blog as he is calling it. I thought it would help you to understand me more so that you could put my words into perspective.  I suppose I feel like it is very easy to say only positive things about yourself but that isn’t who any of us really are.  ;-)  For better or worse I wanted to share a bit more about me to give you a more complete picture.

Happy thought:

I have many things to be thankful for today and those are:

• Our morning run to Wegman’s and Whole Foods was nice. The roads were fairly empty and the stores weren’t mobbed. Also we were able to get everything we needed and be home by 9:30 for a green smoothie.

• Today we spent relaxing and listening to jazz on Pandora. When Dan bought a new fancy TV for the family room I thought it was unnecessary but I love using it to stream Pandora. Now my TV is almost always tuned in to one of the jazz stations. I am a big fan on instrumental jazz and find it to be very relaxing. Yesterday and today we have been listening to the Dave Koz station.

• Typically I drink plain green or white tea but the last couple of weeks I have been seriously enjoying the flavored teas that Dan usually drinks at work. Also the Youthberry tea from Teavana that “the kids” (Aimee and Michael) gave us for Christmas is fantastic. I am really growing to love flavored tea.

• My father liked the Brussels sprout dish I made on Sunday including the quinoa. Score another win for healthy food. ;-) I get very excited when I can make something that my parents enjoy that is also good for them.

• I am also thankful that my knee is feeling good today. I think I have decided to give the gym another go tomorrow morning. With a little luck I will behave myself and have an appropriate knee friendly work out tomorrow morning. Wish me luck moderation is not one of my strengths. ;-)

Signing:

If am going to get up tomorrow morning at 5am I need to turn in very soon. I hope you had a great weekend and feel energized to start another work week. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Italian Food Sunday: Sicilian Salad and Risotto Primavera

Good Evening. I hope you are all having a great weekend. Ours has been a little slow and lazy, but in a very restorative way. We both feel like we are rested enough to start another week. Not that we wouldn’t prefer a much longer weekend. ;-)

We have decided to change dinner with my parents into more of a late lunch, early dinner for a while and see how that works. Why do people like to eat so early once they get old? Anybody know the answer?

For supper today we had a little Italian food since it is our comfort food of choice. Given that it is spring I was in the mood for pasta primavera. But I wanted to make a healthy version so I made barley in the risotto style and added in fresh veggies at the end so that they would retain both color and nutrition. To go with the risotto we had a quick Sicilian salad of fennel, red onions, citrus and a little sliced olive. Both dishes disappeared fairly quickly so I know they were enjoyed by both the omnis and vegans at the table. Here is how I made the salad:

Sicilian Orange and Fennel Salad
serves 4

Ingredients:

1 small red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 fennel bulb, sliced in half top to bottom and thinly sliced into half moons (reserve stems for risotto recipe below, reserve a few fronds for garnish)
2 large oranges, or 4 small ones, peeled and sliced into rounds, seeds removed
4 olives, pitted and slivered
Salt and pepper, if desired

Directions:

Combine the onion and vinegar and toss to coat. Add the fennel and refrigerate until needed. To serve, place the onion and fennel on the base of the plate and top with the orange slices and one olive thinly slivered. Top with fennel fronds for garnish. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 79.71
Calories From Fat (8%) - 6.26

Total Fat - 0.74g
Saturated Fat - 0.08g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 70.79mg
Potassium - 414.87mg
Total Carbohydrates - 17.75g
Fiber - 4.65g
Sugar - 8.6g
Protein - 1.94g

Comments:

This is a classic Sicilian salad combination. Normally it contains quite a bit of olive oil, but we think it tastes great with just a touch of sliced olive. It is one of my favorite salads. The sweetness of the oranges plays well with the saltiness of the olives. I also like the tenderness of the oranges against the crispness of the fennel. This is a very nice salad. I hope you give it a try.

Next recipe:

To go with our salad we had a simple risotto primavera made with barley since that is healthier. Here is what I did:

Barley Risotto Primavera
Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion, peeled and finely diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
4 stalks celery, finely diced
½ cup fennel stems, thinly sliced (optional but a good addition if you have them from making the salad)
¼ cup water to sauté the aromatics
2 cups barley
Water or light veg stock to cook the barley (heat 4 quarts to start)
¼ cup nutritional yeast
1 cup frozen peas
¾ pound asparagus, woody ends removed, remaining veg thinly sliced in 1/16 inch circles, tips reserved for garnish
4 cups spinach, julienned
1 lemon, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons Italian parsley, finely minced
2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, finely minced
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Water sauté the aromatics (water, garlic and celery) until tender. Then add the barley and about 1 cup of water and bring the heat to medium high and begin stirring. When the water has mostly evaporated add another cup of water. The first few additions of water will be quickly absorbed. You do not need to stir constantly, only every few minutes. You are stirring for two reasons: to keep the barley from sticking, and to create a thick starchy sauce. When you stir you are rubbing the grains of barely together and starch is being released into the cooking liquid. This is how you end up with a creamy risotto without cream.

Continue to add water, a cup or so at time until the barley is the texture you desire. I cooked mine for 45 minutes over fairly high heat. When you like the texture of the barley add the remaining ingredients (except the asparagus tips) and turn off the heat and put the lid on the pan. You want the warmth of the risotto to heat the veggies but not cook them. A little crunch from the veggies is good to add textural variation to the dish. Taste for salt and pepper and serve with a few asparagus tips on top.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 347.83
Calories From Fat (4%) - 14.29

Total Fat - 1.6g
Saturated Fat 0.3g 2%
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 182.8mg
Potassium - 699.7mg
Total Carbohydrates - 69.66g
Fiber - 15.19g
Sugar - 3.41g
Protein - 11.51g

Comments:

If you like risotto made with rice but you want something that is healthier this is good choice. It has a lot of flavor, more than you would expect. One of the nice parts of this dish is that it reheats exceptionally well. Dan loves when I make barley risotto so he has leftovers for lunch. This dish would also be good with a little almond feta on top if you like

Unrelated note:

There is something about a gray day that just doesn’t inspire me to be very productive. We have had another very relaxing day at our house, unless you count housework that is. How two adults make so much laundry is completely beyond me.

Tomorrow I have a few things I want to accomplish so I may not be around until the afternoon. But overall this coming week should be a good one and you should expect many posts from me.

I am actually going to try to develop a menu for the week. This is something I have tried to do for years but somehow it never seems to stick. But I am going to try it again and see if I can make it work this time. I will keep you posted on my progress. This leads to a question. How many of you stick to a weekly menu? If this is something that you manage to make work do you have any tips for sticking to the plan?

For now I am going to do a few things around the house and relax with a mug of green tea. I hope you are having a relaxing weekend too. Talk to you tomorrow.

Beet Barley Risotto with Wilted Beet Greens

Sorry for my absence this week. We have had a lot going on this week, much more than normal. I had forgotten that part of our eye exams yesterday would be the drops that dilate your eyes. I looked stoned for half a day after the exam. With my eyes dilated I wasn’t able to read easily so I didn’t even try to do anything on the computer. After our eye appointments my hubby decided to take the day off with me, which was really nice. He has gone back to work today so my day today will return to normal.

On Wednesday of this week I spent the day with my friend Sue and we were cooking for hours. This was the day we decided to veganize the first few recipes from the cookbook. It was a good thing we decided to make the dishes together as there was a lot of cooking and cleaning that was required to make three dishes at once. Had I been doing this by myself I would have had to start making dinner right after breakfast.

As part of the “cookbook project” we needed one beet to make beet chips. They were only sold in a bunch of 6 beets so I decided we would make a beet barley risotto for our lunch before we started making dinner. This is what we had on Wednesday for lunch.

Beet Barley Risotto with Wilted Beet Greens
Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 small yellow onion (about 1 cup), peeled and chopped
¼ cup water to sauté
pinch of salt
2 cups barley
½ cup dry white wine
water (or vegetable stock) sufficient to cook barley
2 cups beets (5 medium beets, finely diced into about ¼ inch pieces)
1 ½ teaspoons dill weed
salt and pepper, as necessary
beet greens and stems from the 5 beets, finely chopped

Directions:

Water sauté onion with the pinch of salt until the onion is soft. Add barley and white wine and mix. Add diced beets, dill, 2 cups of water, and simmer, stirring occasionally. Continue to add water and stir until the barley is tender (about 40 minutes). Taste the risotto and adjust the seasonings (salt, pepper and dill) as necessary. When the barley is tender turn off the heat and stir in the beet greens and serve immediately. If desired you can drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil when serving.

Dan and I had leftover beet risotto for lunch yesterday. It reheated well in the microwave.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 256.39
Calories From Fat (3%) - 7.08

Total Fat - 0.85g
Saturated Fat - 0.18g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 151.29mg
Potassium - 511.68mg
Total Carbohydrates - 54.94g
Fiber - 12.04g
Sugar - 1.31g
Protein - 7.63g

Comments:

If you like beets you will love this risotto. It is the most beautiful magenta color. The barley is tender and the beet greens have a little firmness.

Each serving of this recipe is packed with nutrition containing approximately 2,400IU of vitamin A, 80mg of calcium, 3mg of iron, 25mcg of folate, 150mcg of vitamin K, 170mg of phosphorus, 85mg of magnesium, and 25mcg of selenium. Not too bad for something we decided to make on the fly after having more beets than we needed for beet chips.

Unrelated Note:

I haven’t had time to exercise since Tuesday so I really need to do that this morning. I also need to catch up on responding to comments and reading blogs. I hope to have time to post at least one more recipe today (hopefully more). Talk to you all again soon.

Sautéed Cabbage and Vegetables over Brown Rice Risotto

Tonight’s dinner was based on what I had in the refrigerator that I wanted to use before the weekend. Not glamorous I know, but practical. I had a little brown rice risotto to use up or freeze so that became the base for dinner. Next I noticed the half head of cabbage from the weekend. Cabbage is a member of the cruciferous vegetable family and helps to fight cancer. Rice and cabbage say Chinese food to me.

I used a half tablespoon of canola oil to try to keep the total fat down on this recipe. I wasn’t certain if this would be enough fat for the entire recipe, but it was fine. Since the total fat was still well above the 12% goal next time I will lower the fat a little more.

The one change I would make to this recipe is to add more liquid aminos. However, when I looked at the numbers I felt uncomfortable adding sodium. Next time I will try to use more garlic and maybe some ginger to increase the flavor without sodium.

Overall, I liked this dish and was reasonably satisfied with the nutritional stats. It is obviously going to take me a little while in the kitchen before I can get our overall fat percentage to 12%.

Sautéed Cabbage and Vegetables over Brown Rice Risotto
Serves 2

Ingredients:

½ tablespoon of canola oil
1 red onion, sliced thinly
1 clove of garlic, minced
½ a head of green cabbage, shredded finely
2 tablespoons of liquid aminos
5 ounce can of sliced water chestnuts, drained
15 ounce can of straw mushroom, drained
15 ounce can of whole baby corn, drained
1 1/3 cups of brown rice risotto, cooked
a few sprigs of cilantro for garnish

Directions:

Sauté the red onion and garlic in canola oil until tender crisp. Add the shredded cabbage, water chestnuts, mushrooms and baby corn to the pan to heat through. This will take a few minutes. Add the liquid aminos before serving and toss to combine.

Heat the risotto in the microwave until hot. Top the risotto with the veg and serve hot. Top each serving with a few cilantro leaves for color.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 283.54
Calories From Fat (22%) - 63.28

Total Fat - 7.28g
Saturated Fat - 0.69g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 2296.18mg
Potassium - 300.09mg
Total Carbohydrates - 47.55g
Fiber - 12.24g
Sugar - 2.53g
Protein - 12.62g

Comments:

This makes a mountain of food. My husband and I both decided we were uncomfortably full after eating this dinner. How you can get that full on less than 300 calories is still a little perplexing. The flavor profile had good umami from the cabbage, mushrooms and liquid aminos. If you are looking for a big meal that is low in calories this fits the bill.

Brown Rice Risotto Cakes – foundation recipe

I have wanted to make a whole grain version of risotto cakes for a while. Since they also needed to be baked I wasn’t quite certain how to begin this recipe. Today I tried to make the cakes with only the brown rice risotto and they wouldn’t stick together at all. I considered adding flour, but didn’t want the flour taste in the final product. I decided to grind some of the cold risotto to use as the glue to hold the risotto cakes together. This method worked well. This is my foundation recipe for baked brown rice risotto cakes.

If you decide to add a filling to the cakes make a well in the center and stuff a small amount (no more than a half tablespoon) in the middle of the cake. This will make the cake taller and may require you to add 10 minutes to the total cooking time. I will be adding variations with fillings later this week.

Brown Rice Risotto Cakes – foundation recipe
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 cup of brown rice risotto, cooked and cooled (or cold)
¼ cup of whole wheat panko breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon of canola oil

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and spray a cast iron pan with canola oil place the pan in the oven to preheat while the oven is coming up to temperature.

Take ½ of the brown rice and place it in the food processor. Grind the risotto until it is mostly pulverized. In a bowl, add the ground risotto to the remaining half cup of whole risotto and combine with your hands. You want to make certain the ground and whole risotto is evenly dispersed. Shape the risotto into two patty shapes. Coat each risotto cake with half the whole wheat panko crumbs. Use your hands to press the panko into the surface of both sides of the risotto cakes.

Remove the cast iron pan from the oven and place ½ tablespoon of canola in the bottom of the pan and put the risotto cakes in the pan. Drizzle the top of the risotto cakes with the remaining ½ tablespoon of canola oil. Cook the risotto cakes for 15 minutes and then gently flip the cakes and bake for another 15 minutes.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 167.53
Calories From Fat (47%) - 78.12

Total Fat - 8.88g
Saturated Fat - 0.67g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 173.18mg
Potassium - 5.08mg
Total Carbohydrates - 20.46g
Fiber - 2g
Sugar - 0.3g
Protein - 2.51g

Comments:

These cakes are very crunchy on the outside and have a little brown rice chew on the inside. I was surprised by how well this method worked. Expect to see more risotto cakes this week with varied flavors as I add different flavors and fillings to this basic recipe.

If you choose to make this recipe as it is you will need to have a sauce or vegetable relish to add flavor to these cakes. This recipe was all about method and cooking times. These cakes are a little bland on their own. This recipe as written would be great drizzled with a little tomato sauce and fresh torn basil leaves on top.

Short Grain Brown Rice Risotto – foundation recipe

I bought short grain brown rice months ago to try to make a more healthy risotto and never got around to making it. Today, since my darling husband is working (don’t ask), I decided I was going to give brown rice risotto a try since I had the time.

I decided to make a very plain risotto for a few reasons: 1) I didn’t know if it was going to work, 2) if it did work I wanted to try to make it into risotto cakes tomorrow. Normally you would add aromatics to the pan first and sauté those before the rice. As you will see, I left that step out today.

This recipe is all about the method and the timing. The resulting risotto was a little al dente and creamy. I rather enjoyed the texture, although it isn’t traditional. This is a good method and I will be using it again soon.

Short Grain Brown Rice Risotto – foundation recipe
Serves 6 – 1 cup servings

Ingredients:

2 cups of short grain brown rice
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup of dry white wine or Marsala wine
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
10 cups of filtered water or vegetable stock, heated to a simmer (you may only use part of this)

Directions:

Toast rice in olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. When rice is just beginning to toast (about 3 minutes) add the wine. Cook the rice, stirring, until the wine evaporates and then add a ladle or two of hot water and a pinch of salt. Stir to beginning to release the rice starch. Turn the heat to low and set a timer for 5 minutes. Every five minutes add another ladle or two of water and a pinch of salt and stir the rice. You continue this process until the rice is tender to the tooth. This will take approximately 45 minutes. If you have liquid left in the pan and the rice is cooked, put a lid on the pan and let the rice sit covered for about 10 minutes. As long as there isn’t a lot of liquid the rice will absorb all the liquid as it sits.

You add any vegetables you want to this. The vegetables can be added to the top of the rice or they can be stirred inside. With this version I will be serving the sautéed vegetables to the top of the dish so that I can try to make brown rice risotto cakes tomorrow. This is another first for me, so it may brown rice cakes may not work. But if they do, I will post the recipe this weekend.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 141.29
Calories From Fat (20%) - 28.14

Total Fat - 3.25g
Saturated Fat - 0.31g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 323.35mg
Potassium - 10.16mg
Total Carbohydrates - 26.92g
Fiber - 2g
Sugar - 0.09g
Protein - 2.01g

Comments:

Since the rice I used is brown it will not reach the same level of softness that you get from an Arborio or Carnaroli rice risotto. The texture is a little al dente, but I like that aspect of the dish. The rice is a little starchy, but again not as starchy as you get from a traditional risotto. I may need to add a little flour tomorrow to keep my risotto cakes together. Overall I think this experiment went better than I expected. I really am looking forward to making the rice cakes tomorrow.

Does anyone else have the French Laundry cookbook? Can you believe the amount of cream, butter and cheese they include in their carnaroli risotto with shaved white truffle recipe? I know those things are good, but seriously I don’t need to have a cardiologist on speed dial. I used to cook that way, so I shouldn’t comment, but I was rather horrified when I looked at the ingredients. It is no wonder so many Americans have prescriptions for statins these days. I am very thankful that I stopped cooking with all that saturated fat before my husband or I had a cardiac event.

Sun Dried Tomato Barley Risotto

I adore the traditional versions of risotto made with Italian superfino rice. In fact I am a bit of risotto snob. I can tell the difference in texture between a risotto made with the usual Arborio compared to my favorite Carnaroli. I love the texture of Carnaroli grains for their ability to remain distinct yet soft, compared to Arborio whose grains seems to lose their individual character.

So, why am I including a recipe for a barley risotto? While I love traditional risotto it is made with white rice. We all know that white rice is mostly devoid of nutrition. I do still make rice risotto, but more often now I make barley in the risotto style.

Barley is another one of those foods that is so healthy. One cup of barley contains over 50% of the recommended daily value of selenium. Barley is also very high in soluble fiber and is linked to a reduction in cholesterol. The insoluble fiber in barley helps feed the friendly bacteria in your intestinal tract. Barley also contains niacin that helps to protect us against cardiovascular disease. Overall there are many healthy and tasty reasons to eat barley. I wish I could make the same case for my beloved Carnaroli rice.

Sun Dried Tomato Barley Risotto
Serves 6 generously as a main dish

Ingredients:

1/3 of a cup of sun dried tomatoes, finely sliced
10 cups of vegetable stock or water
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, finely diced (yellow or white is fine, I used red for color)
3 garlic cloves, minced (allow to stand 10 minutes after mincing to allow allicin to develop)
1/2 cup of dry white wine (like pinot grigio)
2 cups of pearled barley
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary, finely minced (could substitute thyme or oregano)

Optional Ingredients:
¼ cup of gremolata (freshly grated lemon zest from one lemon, one minced garlic clove and small handful of minced parsley)
½ cup of almond feta, for garnish

Directions:

Place dried sun dried tomatoes in vegetable stock (or water) and microwave for a few minutes. Allow to stand so that tomatoes rehydrate. Put the tomato stock and rosemary in a pan and heat to a simmer.

In a very large pan sauté the onion in the olive oil until lightly brown. Add the barley to the onion and toast for a few minutes to bring out a slightly nutty flavor in the barley. Add the wine to the barley pan and cook, while stirring, until the wine has been absorbed. Add the tomato stock a couple of ladles at a time to the barley pan. With each addition of the stock taste for the appropriate level of saltiness and add as necessary. This helps the dish to be evenly salted.

Lower the heat so the pan is slowly simmering and stir the barley a few times. Set the timer for 5 minutes and walk away (unless you love to stir). Every 5 minutes repeat, by adding stock, stirring, checking the salt level and setting the timer for 5 minutes. Continue this process until the barley reaches your desired consistency.

Barley risotto takes at least 45 minutes to absorb enough liquid to become tender which is why I lower the heat and walk away every 5 minutes. When the barley risotto has almost reached your desire texture you can either stay and continue to stir until it is done or put a lid on the pan turn off the heat and come back in 10 minutes.

Directions for optional ingredients:

If you like you can add the almond feta when you serve the risotto, but it isn’t necessary. It will have plenty of flavor without the cheese.

If using gremolata add it to the top of the risotto when plating. You can always just add a little finely minced Italian parsley.

Comments:

This barley risotto has a big flavor from the sun dried tomatoes and fresh rosemary. If you like roasted garlic that would also be nice added to the stock. The green from the parsley and the white from the almond feta make a nice color contrast to the dish. Sometimes I add a little finely sliced sun dried tomatoes that have not been cooked, for textural variety.

This recipe makes great leftovers. We frequently pack this for lunch. It makes a nice vegetarian dinner or lunch with a salad on the side.

When choosing a pan to prepare the risotto make certain it is large. The barley will swell to at least 4 times its original size.

If you run out of stock before the risotto has reached your desired degree of tenderness add additional water to the pot.

Why do you heat the tomato flavored stock? Adding heated stock to the barley risotto ensures the barley continues to cook as quickly as possible